Fixed Ops Journal - February 2022 - F22

FIXED OPS JOURNAL
AI handles service scheduling when a human can'TAKING THE CALLt answer the phone
DAN SHINE
dan.shine@crain.com
T
he early adopters of Numa, an artifi
cial intelligence -powered phone
answering service, included restaurants,
medical offi ces and beauty salons.
But when a few franchised dealerships
began testing the system to relieve a common
pain point - handling incoming service calls
- company founders Tasso Roumeliotis and
Joel Grossman decided to visit a service department.
" Th
ey were amazed at what they saw, " says
auto industry veteran and Numa automotive
division Executive Vice President Derek Simonds.
" Th ere were sticky notes all over advisers'
desks and computer screens, messages
from customers wanting to make an appointment
or wanting to know when their car
would be ready. "
Th e two left knowing their technology could
have a positive impact in a dealership service
department. Until then, the only automotive-related
customers had been some aftermarket
shops. A few dealerships signed on
and told their sibling stores about Numa.
" We weren't even marketing to them, " Simonds
says. " And when we looked at the statistics,
they were the most active users of the
product. When we investigated, answering
the phone call was big business to these BDC
teams. "
Numa " was able to handle the overfl ow and
handle just the fl ow, in many cases. "
Simonds says their research showed 40 percent
of phone calls to the service department
go unanswered. Numa will answer a call to the
service department or business development
Simonds:
The quicker
dealership staff
communicate
with customers,
" the higher the
CSI, the higher
the repair order
value is. "
Hello, Numa
Here are some of Numa's features.
 Answers phone after 3 rings
 Books appointments
 Updates customers on repair status
 Communicates via text in more than
100 languages
 Works 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week, 365 days a year
GPS to locate a loved one, Numa CEO Roumeliotis
and President Grossman were pioneers
of that technology.
Roumeliotis says when developing Numa,
he and Grossman were inspired by the Chinese
business communication platform
WeChat, with its natural language processing
and other AI capabilities.
" We said, 'Th at's going to happen here. It's
not a matter of if, it's a matter of when,' " Roumeliotis
says.
" We said, 'Th ere's room for a company to
come in and help businesses interact in the
new way of communicating with customers,
which is going to be initially hybrid voice messaging
and then evolve to just get smarter and
smarter over time.' "
Another interesting feature: Numa can text
in more than 100 languages, Simonds says.
" We actually have service advisers using Numa
on the service drive texting with customers, "
he says. " Th ey text in English, and the
customer sees it in their native language. "
Th e monthly cost of Numa is $2,795, and the
Roumeliotis: How businesses interact with
consumers will get " smarter over time. "
center if it isn't picked up after three rings.
It will ask if the caller wants to schedule an
appointment. If the answer is yes, Numa will
ask the caller if their phone can receive text
messages and then send a link to set up an appointment.
Numa also can take messages and
route them to the appropriate service adviser.
Numa is in about 100 dealerships, and Simonds
says, on average, answers about 1,500
service calls a month. One in 4 service appointments,
on average, is scheduled without
any human interaction.
In addition, Numa will automatically send
texts to customers to update the status of their
vehicle's repair. Simonds says Numa research
shows 41 percent of calls to a service adviser are
to check on when their vehicle will be ready.
" What we found is that the quicker that the
people at the dealership engage a customer in
communication, the happier the customers,
the higher the CSI, the higher the repair order
value is, " Simonds says.
Th e Oakland, Calif., company has interesting
roots. If you ever used your mobile phone's
PAGE 22 FEBRUARY 2022
system can be set up in less than a half-hour.
Service adviser training on the system takes
less than 10 minutes, the company says.
Th ere does not seem to be much customer
resistance in not dealing with a human. Customers
who scheduled an appointment
through Numa showed up 76 percent of the
time, compared with 78 percent when booked
by the BDC, the company says.
" We want the dealership to answer the
phone; that's ideal, " Simonds says. " We want
your service adviser, your BDC to answer the
phone. But if they can't, we're there. We got
you 100 percent. " 
Grossman: WeChat business communication
platform inspired development of Numa
Fixed Ops Journal - February 2022

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